The SEC has had it’s fair share of standout safeties over the last several years. This year, two new faces are ready to add their names to the ranks of former stars. Both Auburn and South Carolina will see their back lines get a boost from transfers in the forms of Tray Matthews and Isaiah Johnson, respectively.

Let’s take a look at the two safeties and see what their impact will be this fall.

How they got here

Matthews: In 2013, Matthews was one of the hottest safety prospects in the country. He was ranked No. 8 in the nation at the position coming out of Newnan, Ga. and signed with his home-state Georgia Bulldogs. He got on the field early as a freshman, making six starts and recording 36 tackles. He ran into off-field trouble, though, when he was charged with theft by deception in March 2014 for trying to cash his scholarship checks twice. After a classroom disruption later that spring, Georgia coach Mark Richt dismissed Matthews from the team. Matthews decided to transfer and picked Auburn over Louisville, sitting out 2014 under NCAA transfer rules.

Johnson: Johnson has had quite the nomadic college career already, as South Carolina will be his fourth stop. A three-star recruit from Cary, N.C., Johnson signed with Western Carolina coming out of high school. After one year, he transferred to junior college, earning national honors at Iowa Western C.C. From there, he bounced to Kansas, where he was an impact player from the minute he walked on campus. He won the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year award in 2013 and followed it up with a strong season in 2014, finishing as KU’s second-leading tackler with 75 stops. After graduating with a year of eligibility remaining, Johnson decided to head closer to home to play for the Gamecocks.

Role in 2015

Matthews: Although he hasn’t played a snap since 2013, Matthews is expected to be one of the most important members of Auburn’s secondary this fall. The Tigers lost a lot of senior talent from last year’s team and are extremely thin in the defensive backfield after a few more players transferred out. Matthews and Rudy Ford will make up the backbone of a talented starting group of defensive backs, and they’ll need to be as good as advertised unless the Tigers want to play unproven players and walk-ons in the secondary.

Johnson: The Gamecocks defense was a mess last year, starting with the defensive line but including the secondary’s play as well. It loses its best player in Brison Williams, and the rest of the group was inconsistent at best last year. Johnson should be the steadiest player on the back end, one of the few seniors on the defense, and he’s the most proven player among the group. South Carolina needs immediate help in the defensive backfield thanks to some recent struggle in recruiting, and snagging Johnson gives them a player who should be a factor immediately.

Measuring the impact

Both of these players will be impactful at their new schools, that’s not a question. In the grand scheme, it’s hard to say that Johnson will have a bigger impact than Matthews, though. The Gamecocks defense was awful last year, and it has a lot of room to improve. However, South Carolina isn’t anywhere near the contender status that Auburn has. The Tigers are going to rely on Matthews as a key player on what could be a championship-level defense under Will Muschamp. Both players will be huge for their respective teams, but Matthews will have the greater conference-wide impact.